As New Jersey’s latest firearm legislation undergoes its own battle in the courts, a majority of New Jerseyans disagree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Bruen and side with the Garden State’s new concealed carry law, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll in partnership with the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.

Sixty-one percent of Garden State residents disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling last year
in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. A similar number – 58 percent – believe
that individual states should be allowed to require firearm owners to demonstrate a justifiable
need for a firearm in public places when applying for a carry permit.

When it comes New Jersey’s new firearm law in response to Bruen, solid majorities support the
following parts of the legislation that enact certain requirements and restrictions on concealed
firearm carry in public:

• Requiring firearm safety training courses (92 percent)
• Mandating permit holders purchase liability insurance to carry a firearm in public (67
percent)
• Banning the concealed carry of a firearm on private property unless the property owner
allows it (67 percent)
• Banning the concealed carry of a firearm in “sensitive areas” such as schools, hospitals,
polling places, beaches, theaters and other public spaces (62 percent)
New Jerseyans are more divided, however, when it comes to prohibiting permit holders from
keeping a loaded firearm in their cars: 50 percent support it, while 47 percent oppose the
move.

“The data clearly show that, post-Bruen, judicial decisions regarding firearms are in direct
contrast to the wishes of New Jerseyans, overall, and, in many cases, that’s true across party
lines and for both firearm owners and non-firearm owners,” said Michael Anestis, associate
professor in urban-global public health at the Rutgers School of Public Health and executive
director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center. “Increasing the carrying of firearms
across New Jersey will increase the risk of firearm injury and death – and that risk is not
something that New Jersey residents want in their communities.”

When it comes to Bruen and what individual states should be allowed to do, some demographic
differences emerge. Republicans, men, people 18 to 34 years old, those living in the
southwestern region of the state, those with a high school education or less and those with
firearms in the home are more split on whether they agree or disagree with the U.S. Supreme
Court on Bruen than their counterparts.

Republicans, men, those living in the southwestern area of the state, those with a high school
education or less and those with firearms in the home are likewise divided when it comes to
whether individual states should be allowed to require firearm owners demonstrate a
justifiable need for a firearm in public places when applying for a carry permit.

While many of these groups are more opposed compared with their counterparts when it
comes to individual pieces of the latest New Jersey firearm legislation, sizeable numbers within
each of these groups – at times, reaching a majority –express support for some of these items.

Support for requiring firearm safety training courses is widespread, including among
Republicans (89 percent) and firearm owners (92 percent). Majorities across the board –
including just over half of Republicans and firearm owners – also support mandating permit
holders to purchase liability insurance and banning the concealed carry of a firearm on private
property unless allowed by the owner. Nearly half of firearm owners (49 percent) and roughly
four in 10 Republicans (42 percent) support banning concealed carry in sensitive public areas.
Six in 10 of each of these groups, however, are opposed to prohibiting permit holders from
keeping a loaded firearm in their car.

“Throughout our five decades of polling, New Jerseyans, on the whole, have always been
supportive of firearm restrictions and regulations,” said Ashley Koning, an assistant research
professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP) at Rutgers
University–New Brunswick. “As New Jerseyans witnessed at least four mass shootings
nationally while this poll was being conducted, and on the heels of multiple active shooter
scares throughout the Garden State in recent months, this sentiment remains strong. Even if
New Jersey’s recent firearm legislation ultimately works its way to the U.S. Supreme Court,
public opinion has already chosen sides.”

One in five New Jerseyans report some sort of firearm being kept in or around their home.

Republicans (32 percent), men (26 percent), people 35 to 49 years old (25 percent), those in
households making $150,000 or more annually (32 percent) and those living in the exurban (28
percent), southwestern (28 percent), or the Jersey Shore (25 percent) areas of the state are all
more likely to live in a household with firearms.

Results are from a statewide poll of 1,002 adults contacted by live interviewers on landlines and
cell phones from April 27 to May 5. The full sample has a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage
points.